Friday, October 22, 2004

A good question

But why is Democratic weakness in the South more newsworthy than Republican
weakness on the coasts? Yes, as Brownstein notes, “Kerry appears to have
conceded 141 [Southern] electoral college votes…to Bush.” But Bush has
conceded at least 143 to Kerry (California, Illinois, New York, Illinois,
southern New England, Maryland and DC). Will that be the focus of his next
column?

This is something that has bugged me for years. Why do we keep talking about
the Democratic party's "Southern Problem" when the Republicans have an
equal, if not worse problem on both coasts? Why is there this assumption in
politics that the South is somehow more representative of America than the rest
of the nation?